There is no villager more mysterious than the ghost in Tainted Grail: Conquest. Finding him is a bit of a chore and he's frequently the very last villager to be unlocked. But even after getting ahold of his services, players will appropriately wonder how to best use him.
Unlike the other villagers with their own unique currencies, the ghost's unique currency doesn't have value on its own. Rather, it's utilized by turning it into other currencies in Tainted Grail: Conquest. This guide will leverage this villager to his absolute best.
Start With At Least One Gambling Win
At the start of any run, there isn't any reason not to start over if everything isn't perfect. Many players reload their save after a few battles that go south. The ghost offers free gold for those who don't mind cheesing the game mechanics a little bit.
The only way to make one of the best RPGs on Game Pass even better is to start out with extra wealth. Go to the ghost and gamble; if it's a loss, abandon the run and start over. If it's a win, then continue with the journey. There is a 50% chance of winning twice or more and a 12.5% chance of winning all three times (players can only gamble three times per run), so those who don't mind reloading often can potentially start off very rich.
Gamble All Three Times Later On
After the one win, it's probably best to stop when first playing the game. On the first difficulty and without any upgrades with the seamstress, players gamble one-hundred wealth and either receive two-hundred wealth or lose their investment. Tough, but fair.
Those who want to feel like a rich merchant in this immersive RPG will eventually want to gamble all three times. The wealth won back increases depending on the difficulty and seamstress upgrades. With a 50% bonus from the seamstress and at difficulty ten, that means players win back 250% of their investment. All it takes is one out of the three wins to make a profit.
Farming Journal Pages
The ghost's main asset is his ability to turn journal pages into currency to spend with other villagers. Not every part of this game will be identical in any future installments, but having a way to turn discoveries into currency would be a wise idea for future RPG sequels to keep around.
Keep an eye on that quest journal. Completing each stage of a quest results in journal pages to spend with the ghost. Also, discovering new cards, passives, and monsters also yield journal pages. Consider it a reward for diversifying the way fans play.
Best Currency To Buy
Without much debate, card shreds are absolutely the best currency to buy from the ghost. Consider that the only way to get card shreds are to forfeit extra cards when they are offered. Barring a few classes like the Sentinel that don't need many cards to be great, this is a stiff price to pay.
The exchange rate is among the best, too. Twenty-five pages turn into twenty-five card shreds for a nice and even ratio. If the master-at-arms is maxed out, runestone dust isn't a bad investment either since merging runes can be tedious.
Worst Currency To Buy
Again, there is little debate in the community about which currency is a straight-up waste of journal pages. Tallow's exchange rate is terrible, giving players who bury twenty-five pages only fifteen tallow in return. That's the equivalent of a few Wyrdcandles.
But even if the yield was five-hundred tallow, the investment would still be the worst. Within a few runs, players can have Wyrdcandles last for the entire game with a couple of upgrades at the candlemaker. Having extra tallow or candles doesn't help with much.
The Special Card: Mystic Gamble
Unless they look it up, players are expected to buy the ghost's special card, Mystic Gamble, totally blind. That's valuable wealth to be spent on maybe getting something good, so it's best to know ahead of time that Mystic Gamble randomly increases either damage by 50% or armor by 25 for three turns.
Given that this isn't a dependable bonus, it's probably best not to buy this card unless the golden token upgrades are all spent with the scientist. After that, hoarding wealth is meaningless, so feel free to spend away on the special cards from the villagers.
Tainted Grail: Conquest was released on May 27th, 2021, and is available for PC.